Hall Pass

Starring: Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Christina Applegate, Jenna Fischer

Director: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

Rated: R

Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred(Jason Sudeikis) are given one week off from marriage no question asked in hopes to help strengthen their relationships in the long run.

Throughout the 90’s the Farrelly brothers had a string of hit comedies from Dumb and Dumber to There’s something about Mary, For some reason they have not been able to recapture the magic that made their earlier movies so funny and successful. Hall Pass is there attempt at going back to the original formula of scatological jokes, a few shocking scenes and wrappingit up with a feel good ending. While Hall Pass doesn’t have the iconic scene of Something about Mary or the Iconic character of say a Big Ern McCrackin in Kingpin. The Farrelys do bring the gross out humor that garnered them fame in the first place. No other team would put together a film which includes a woman farting diarrhea on a tub wall, a man relieving himself in a sand bunker on a golf course like a house cat in a litter box. And full frontal male nudity. All of these are completely sophomoric but that is what you go to see a Farrelly brothers movie in the first place.

The problem with the film is that both Rick and Fred never make any attempt to make themselves at all attractive to the ladies. Owen Wilson sports a haircut meant to make him look like a middle aged douche with baggy pants that don’t fit and a plethora of ridiculous button upped shirts including the ever popular Hawaiian while Sudeikis mobs around in a mini van like he is a true baller. It’s funny at first at how lame and inept Rick and Fred are at picking up the ladies and how out of touch they are (thinking applebees is a good place to hook up)

But they never seem to progress; even when they hook up with international playboy friend Coakley (Richard Jenkins) who is able to offer advice on what type of desperate girl to go after but fails to mention that looking like middle aged dads isn’t going to cut it in a club. Also I am not sure what happened to Jenna Fischer but during certain scenes she looks like she was attacked by a spray tanner with skin more closely resembling a bloated pumpkin than that of a human.

Hall Pass is a list of gags showing how inept these two middle aged has beens have become and how they have changed as people as they have grown up. Its not a deep movie but is a nice return to form for the Farrelys.

On a side note the marketing for this movie is terrible with Owen holding a card that says Hall Pass with a stupid look on his face, doesn’t even portray the character in the movie.

Grade-80

New York, NY February 28, 2011 – Tribeca Enterprises today announced that Tribeca Film will expand to commercially release 26 films over the next year, more than double the number of titles released in 2010. The comprehensive distribution label for independent film also announced that it acquired U.S. rights to nine new titles to be released across multiple platforms. The curated selection of films includes many genres and features stars including Zach Braff, Vincent Gallo and Zoe Kravitz and filmmakers such as Peter Mullan, Jerzy Skolimowski and Vincent D’Onofrio.

Unknown
Starring: Liam Neeson, January Jones, Diane Kruger, Aiden Quinn, Frank Langella
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Rated: PG-13

An American in Germany ends up in a coma following a car accident, when he recovers nobody believes he is who he says he is not even his own wife. With the help of the driver of the taxi who pulled him out of the wreck they team up to solve the riddle of who he is and what is going on.

After Taken Liam Neeson has found his niche, who knew the Irishmen would excel in European thrillers? Unknown is an intriguing film with enough plot twists to keep you guessing until the final reveal. Neeson thankfully not supporting the dye job he had in taken which made him look like he dunked his head in a bowl of soy sauce is Dr Martin Harris who goes into a coma following a traffic accident, when he recovers after four days the first thing he wants to do is find his wife Elizabeth (Mad Men’s January Jones) To his surprise Elizabeth has no clue who he is and meets the man she says is her husband Dr Martin Harris (Aiden Quinn) As Neeson tries to put the pieces together he soon is being hunted down by unknown thugs and endangering the lives of the people that are helping him, Primarily Gina (Diane Kruger) an illegal immigrant who is reluctant to help out of fear of getting deported. It’s a fun ride trying to figure out what is going on. The only real issue I had with the film is (Spoiler Alert!)

Near the end when Neeson turns into Jason Bourne due to something I like to call the “Cousin Eddie” (Named after when cousin Eddie explains in Christmas Vacation that his daughter Ruby Sue fell down a well and her eyes went cross but then was kicked by a Mule and her eyes went back to normal) Neeson loses all memory of who he is by taking a bump on the head and his fighting skills are thus weak at best, when he is told who he is and has all the proof of who he is, his assassin skills still suck; its only when a piece of the ceiling hits him in the head that he is he able to channel his inner bad ass and stomp the crap out of the fake Dr Harris. Really? This is the lamest thing ever, he could have slowly regained his fighting skills as he slowly regained his memory or been able to throwdown without knowing how he knows the techniques alla Jason Bourne but instead it takes a second blow to the head, a cheap and pathetic cop out. That being said overall Unknown is a solid thriller and a welcome escape from last week’s one, two punch of awful to the solarplexis displayed by the Beibs and Sandler.

Grade-84

Just Go With It

Starring: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Brooklyn Decker, Nick Swardson, Nicole Kidman, Dave Mathews.

Director: Dennis Dugan

Rated: PG-13

A Plastic Surgeon afraid of commitment wears a wedding ring to have casual affairs under the guise his wife treats him poorly. When he falls instantly in love with a woman at a party she finds the ring and now he must produce the family he has lied about.

Dugan teams up with Sandler again for the umpteenth time, continuing their track record of making each film worse than the last. It’s truly a shame that these two peaked at Happy Gilmore.

Sandler stars as Danny a plastic surgeon who likes to hook up with girls much younger than him, by creating ridiculous stories of how awful his fake wife is, all it takes to seal the deal is show them his wedding ring. While at a party Danny meets Palmer (swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker in her first movie role) he is immediately in love with her only to have her find the wedding ring and almost ruin everything. Danny soon creates a story that he is getting divorced and to save his new relationship he must introduce Palmer to his soon to be ex Devlin, His plan involves his office assistant Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) pretending to be his wife and using her two kids Maggie (Bailee Madison) and Michael (Griffin Gluck) as the fake couples own. They all end up in Hawaii along with Eddie (Nick Swardson) injecting himself into the role of Devlins’ new boyfriend Dolph Lundgren.

Walking into the movie you know that by the end Aniston and Sandler are going to get together, you just hope that it’s a funny and interesting journey while they figure it out. Long story short it’s not. Aniston falls into the same problem she always had, she plays herself in everything she does. Her portrayal of Katherine is the same as her portrayal of every other character she has ever played. I got enough of her for free on TV and and to pay money for the same character is insulting. You could edit scenes from every one of her movies together and have no idea that these were different people. Sandler on the other hand has actually shown under the right direction (Apatow, Paul Thomas Anderson) he can do something special, sadly with Dugan it’s just not the case he reverts back to his old form that has grown tiresome. I can’t fault Sandler for this move he and Dugan can make a movie for pennies and turn it into a cash windfall however from an entertainment standpoint it’s starting to grow old. Trying to find a balance between heart and humor causes the film to miss the mark on both fronts. At this point Sandler is more a fan of making movies in Hawaii than making good movies, the guy is smart and has it all figured out, he gets paid huge sums of money to go on vacation and hang out with his friends, for that rather than this movie I applaud him.

Grade-67

[New York, NY – February 14, 2011] – The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) today announced a long-term partnership with the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms initiative and the launch of the Tribeca Film Institute New Media Fund. In a move that acknowledges the value of audience engagement, the $750,000 fund will provide support and funding to film projects which go beyond traditional screens – integrating film with content across newer media platforms, from video games and mobile apps to social networks and micro-blogging. All projects will activate audiences around issues of contemporary social justice and equality.

In its inaugural year, non-fiction projects accepted into the TFI New Media Fund will each receive $50,000 to $100,000 in funding to directly support ambitious projects that demonstrate the power of direct audience engagement and cross-platform storytelling. To date, this will mark the largest grant in the U.S. available to filmmakers who utilize cross-platform storytelling to promote social change.

Beginning in 2012, JustFilms will increase its support of TFI by contributing $1M a year over five years to support TFI New Media Fund projects. This announcement comes in a milestone year for both TFI and the Ford Foundation, as the Ford Foundation celebrates 75 years of philanthropic giving and TFI moves into its 10th year.

The formation of the TFI New Media Fund brings the not-for-profit’s overall filmmaker funding and support grants to over $1 million in 2011. Co-chairman of the board of the Tribeca Film Institute, Jane Rosenthal commented, “As we enter our 10th year at TFI and join the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms initiative in a new partnership, we have the opportunity to make an even deeper impact. TFI New Media Fund was created to take social justice films beyond the theatre, bringing them into everyday life and allowing audiences to affect change.”

“Our JustFilms initiative reflects our recognition that stories can be powerful instruments of change,” said Orlando Bagwell, director of JustFilms. “Our partnership with the Tribeca Film Institute is an exciting step forward into a new world of storytelling that leverages cross-platform media to help capture imaginations and engage audiences around the world in addressing some of the most pressing social issues of our time.”

Submissions will be open from April 4 through May 25, 2011. TFI will require select grantees to document their process, and help build an open on-line resource for media producers with the goal of establishing best practices in this new ‘transmedia’ field. The TFI New Media Fund is currently soliciting online feedback from a variety of disciplines and industries on the proposed submissions guidelines for the fund in order to foster an open dialog about what is possible in this new field.

The TFI New Media Fund will consider projects which present a non-fiction story focused on social issues and include an integrated cross-platform or new media component designed to engage and activate audiences. Producers from the US and internationally are invited to apply.

“In recent years documentaries that address social injustices have led the way in modeling how independent filmmakers can reach and activate audiences. We’re so excited to be able to take that work to the next level with this initiative,” said Beth Janson, newly appointed executive director of the Tribeca Film Institute.

Preceding this announcement, the Ford Foundation launched JustFilms, a five-year, $50 million initiative to help find and support a new generation of filmmakers whose works address urgent social issues. The launch of the TFI New Media Fund will be at the cornerstone of the partnership between the Ford Foundation and TFI, and will continue to grow throughout the year as projects are selected; ultimately helping to bring them to fruition.

The TFI New Media Fund will be highlighted at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival (April 20 – May 1, 2011), and the grant recipients will be announced in September 2011.

About the Tribeca Film Institute (www.tribecafilminstitute.org) The Tribeca Film Institute is a 501(c)(3) year-round nonprofit arts organization founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in the wake of September 11, 2001. TFI empowers filmmakers through grants and professional development, and is a resource for and supporter of individual artists in the field. The Institute’s educational programming leverages an extensive film community network to help underserved New York City students learn filmmaking and gain the media skills necessary to be productive citizens and creative individuals in the 21st century. Administering a dozen major programs annually, TFI is a critical contributor to the fabric of filmmaking and aids in promoting and protecting filmmakers and media artists.

For more information and a list of all TFI programs visit http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org/

About the Ford Foundation (www.fordfoundation.org)

The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has worked with courageous people on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

Learn more about JustFilms at www.fordfoundation.org/justfilms

Oscar season is in full swing and MRQE.com – the Movie Review Query Engine (www.mrqe.com) just launched a guide for people to easily find where all the top nominated movies are currently playing. Sure, some of these films are still currently in theaters, but what if you haven’t caught Inception or The Social Network? Instead of searching through Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Xbox LIVE, and Redbox, They have aggregated all that information in one handy place, complete with pricing info and one-click access. This can be found at there “Watch the Nominees” page at http://oscars.mrqe.com. You can also view this at: http://www.moviefone.com/oscars-academy-awards.

Sanctum

Starring: Richard Roxburgh, Ioan Gruffud, Rhys Wakefield, Alice Parkinson

Director: Alister Grierson

Rated: R

Sanctum starts out saying it was inspired by true events. The writer of the film Andrew Wright was part of a 13 person team in Australia who was trapped in an a cave after a storm entombs the expedition. ( http://www.cavediving.com.au/cave-diving-articles/1988/12/4/13-hauled-to-safety-from-cave/) The premise of the film is similar with a healthy dose of imagination to increase the tension and make the story worthy of being made into a movie.

Unlike the real life events which took place in Australia this takes place in Papa New Guinea. Substitute a rescue by radio communication to a broken radio  that forces the small group to navigate the uncharted cave system in hopes they can find a way out.

Richard Roxburgh is Frank the world’s best Cave explorer who is not much of a father but a hell of a spelunker. He is trapped with his naïve and idealistic son Josh (Rhys Wakefield) his exploring partner George (Dan Wyllie) along with the Financer of his expedition Carl (Ioan Gruffudd) and his girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson)

Sanctum is the type of film that based on your interests you are going to really enjoy or quite simply loathe. The initial jaunt into the cave is beautiful, it’s well lit with an underwater river and is incredible to look at. You know once the imminent storm hits that things are going to get bad real quick and that they do. The team must dive in icy water with minimal visibility, rock climb and generally complete what appears to be an awesome adventure tour minus the whole part where the group slowly turns on each other as they die off one by one. If you are into diving or rock climbing or spelunking this is the film for you. If you have fears of deep water, claustrophobia, hypothermia, drowning, strange areas with no visibility etc. this is going to be a film you want to stay clear of. The longer it goes on the less pleasant it will be.

Grade-81